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Hi. I'm Rob and my imaginary friend Fred who lives in my house is growing imaginary shrooms for the first time. Fred got 12 tapered 1/2 pint jars and used a brown rice flour / vermiculate / water substrate mix. He used B+ strain from the Lil' Shop of Spores. He didn't have a pressure cookie so he boiled them in a pot for like 2 hours. One cracked in the process. It's been a few weeks now and 2 of the remaining eleven jars became filled with a mix of some brown contaminant, what appears to be cobweb mold, and I guess some mycelia. The remaining 11 are almost fully colonized with what Fred can't distinguish between mycelial growth and cobweb mold. They all are also apparently stalled at the top of the jar (either that or coated with vermiculate that slid down the sides). Anyway, one thing Fred and I find very peculiar is that one of the heavily contaminated jars started pinning heavily, and what appears to be the beginnings of two shrooms are trying to grow right there in the jar. Why that jar, why so fast, and are those shrooms poisonous? My friend Jesse came up with the hypothesis that that jar is doing it because the mycelia consumed all it could, which wasn't much due to the contamination, and all that was left to due was to produce shrooms.

I've also been wondering about contaminants. I know there are kinds that just compete for the nutrients in the substrate and kinds that attack the mycelia. I read some FAQ on this site about contaminants but what it didn't answer for me is the effect of each. Should all shrooms that grew in the same jar as contaminants be discarded? And what's up with cobweb mold and why do me and a hundred others have trouble distinguishing it from mycelia, and is it dangerous?

I was also wondering if anyone could recommend some useful mycology books--hopefully ones that could be found at a Borders so I don't have to attach them to my or Fred's name.

Is it just me or is growing shrooms an incredible bitch compared to growing pot?Thanks a lot for any and all help... Fred will help spread the joy of shrooms with your help and I'll probably have more questions in the future.

--------------------Anything stated above is fictional roleplay dialog by the character that is Slapnut Rob, in no way representing the actions or beliefs of the man behind the keys.

As far as sterilization during inoculation goes, Fred made a glove box with saran wrap and used dishwashing gloves for handling them. He also used a plain ol' lighter to make the needle on the syringe red-hot first, but gave it a couple pumps and a few seconds before starting to let them cool. He also used a technique he learned about from Psilocybe Fanaticus for the jars in which he punctured holes in the lids of the jars, but didn't cover them, whilst using a layer of dry vermiculate on the top of the cakes to keep contaminants out.

RIP recently-raided Psilocybe Fanaticus

--------------------Anything stated above is fictional roleplay dialog by the character that is Slapnut Rob, in no way representing the actions or beliefs of the man behind the keys.